New Substation: More Reliable and Cheaper Power

While construction on Crabiel Hall is getting the most attention, a new electrical substation being built near the Gateway Building will have a profound and positive effect on the College.

“It’s not glamorous, but it is critical,” said Donald R. Drost, executive director of facilities management. “It provides redundancy for our power supply and it will allow us to monitor usage, potentially saving money.”

Mr. Drost said the substation, which will be completed by mid-summer, splits the power supply into two feeds. Under normal circumstances, half the College buildings will be powered by each line. But if one of the lines should fail, all the buildings could be powered by one line.

“This builds in a backup system which will make our power supply more reliable,” he said.

The substation will also have a computerize control system to monitor the amount of electricity the College uses.

“We are charged for both the total amount of electricity we use and also by the peak amount we use during any period of time,” he said. “If we can monitor and then level out the peaks, we should pay less. This substation is state-of-the-art and will allow us to be more efficient.”